This project will develop a computer-based multimedia training system for improving the communication skills of adolescents and adults with developmental disabilities. The aim is to increase speech intelligibility and functional use of spoken and written English in support of occupational and community life skills. The trainer will incorporate automatic speech recognition technology that has been shown to provide clinically valid speech quality feedback and to be effective in individualized speech and language training. The trainer will be an appropriate technological enhancement to the direct instruction component of a communication training program. The training program will integrate clinical intervention by a speech-language pathologist with follow-on community-based training and evaluation performed by the speech-language pathologist and by employment and habilitation support professionals. A functional language skills assessment method that can provided accurate measures of a client's communication deficits will also be developed. The assessment instrument will be used to specify the communication skills content of individual program plans and will also serve as an appropriate tool for evaluating the effectiveness of the training. The multimedia capability of the system will provide a visual and auditory environment far richer in stimulus variability and response consequence than is typical of current direct instructional settings.